At the end of a year that saw the news take a more central role in our lives and when so much is uncertain, some things remain constant and one of them is the list of cases that is most accessed on CanLII. All of the top three cases were in the top three last year, and only one of the top 10 cases was issued in 2017. Eight of the cases were on the list last year. Six of the cases are the same as were on the list in 2014.

As this year comes to an end I take comfort in the fact that the principle of stare decisis continues to ensure decisions are made in the same way over time and which evens out the upheavals of the day.

If you’d like to know more about the decisions and their significance, we invite you to check on CanLII Connects, as almost all of the cases listed have been discussed there.

Some cases have English and French versions, and the statistics have been combined in creating this list. If this hadn’t been done R. v Jordan would have been on the top 10 list in both English and French and was viewed approximately twice as much as the next most viewed case.

Because we know you all wonder about these kinds of things, here are the most accessed cases issued in 2017: